Sergey Kaspariants, Executive Director of VIC Group, took part in the round table by the Federation Council on the veterinary pharmaceutical market development in the Russian Federation

The participants discussed the prospects of the market, measures of state support for veterinary pharmaceuticals manufacturers and the issues of education in the industry.

First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management Sergey Mitin said that the industry of manufacturing and selling veterinary drugs is strictly regulated and hardly supported now. This leads to increased dependence of domestic livestock on foreign suppliers. The Russian market of veterinary drugs is estimated at 55-56 billion rubles and is likely to grow to 82 billion rubles by 2030. Nowadays, only 30% of the veterinary drugs used are domestic, while 70% are imported.

Alexander Isaev, Executive Director of the National Veterinary Association, noted that this is a first time for the last 30 years that the issues of veterinary drugs manufacturing in the Russian Federation and the value of the industry are discussed on such a high level.

However, during this period of time, Russia formed its own considerably veterinary drugs manufacturing facilities, addressing both domestic needs and for exports.
Alexander Isaev also mentioned that domestic producers of veterinary drugs, members of the National Veterinary Association, account for up to 87% in the segment of chemical-pharmaceutical drugs and about 20% in the immunobiological (vaccines) segment. State support would enable Russian manufacturers to make significant progress in the area of import substitution and provide the livestock industry with highly effective locally produced medicines. Russian veterinary companies have the high potential in terms of production capacity and scientific component.

Sergey Kaspariants, Executive Director of VIC Group, suggested that measures to support Russian manufacturers of veterinary pharmaceuticals should be considered. Sergey Kasparyants said that efficient and quick steps are now required to ensure the market self-sufficiency and food safety. Veterinary drug manufacturers in Russia are faced with the task of inorganic growth. Yet, the rules of launching new products in Russia have always been aimed at strict quality and safety control, but such a demanding approach seriously affects the timing of production. For example, it takes at least three years of painstaking research to produce a generic product (a well-researched analog of an imported product). To withstand the pressure of restrictions and to meet the needs of agricultural complexes, domestic producers should be supported by providing them with he opportunity to register generics under an accelerated procedure.

Sergey Mitin underlined that changing requirements of the labor market and development of veterinary medicines production require major revision of the specialized secondary and higher veterinary education system. Every year, 4-5 thousand "general" veterinarians graduate, but their employment rate does not exceed 65%. "We should switch from training generalists to training specialists who are ready to solve specific tasks in the real economy," proposed Sergey Mitin.

Sergey Sereda, President of the Russian Small Animal Veterinary Association (RSAVA), confirmed that one of the pressing problems in improving the veterinary education system is the lack of narrow specialization, and added that undertrained specialists are another urgent issue. About 30% of distance-learning veterinarians graduate each year.

Following the discussion, the participants recognized the necessity to create a working group on the development of the domestic veterinary drugs industry. The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade together with industry associations and unions have been instructed to work on the issue of improving the legislation on drug circulation to ensure state support for veterinary drug manufacturers.

The roundtable on the problems and development prospects of the domestic veterinary medicine and state support for veterinary drug manufacturers was held on March 14. The event was attended by Yury Fedorov, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, Valery Vasiliev, Deputy Chairman of this Committee, members of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management Oleg Alekseev, Andrey Kislov, Alexey Kondratenko, Alexander Narolin, Russian Federation Senators, representatives of federal executive authorities, industry and scientific community.